The release of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag is getting closer, as it will ship on October 29 on Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 first, and then on November 21 on Xbox One, Playstation 4, PC... and Wii U. Ubisoft just sent us this new video of the game focused on the main character, Edward Kenway.
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Those 19 videos I mentioned are only the videos of the game I downloaded from Gamersyde, if I were to count the videos I got from Youtube, Eurogamer, CVG, GameTrailers.com and etc, that would go to almost 40, so yeah, Ubisoft went really crazy with the marketing of this game.
To put it into contrast, a game I want to see more of which is Watch Dogs - almost nothing about its story got revealed, I only have 8 videos of it that I downloaded from Gamersyde, with this one, it goes to 20 videos of AC4-BF.
One thing that should be noted, just like with Watch Dogs, AC4-BF also didn't have much of its story revealed, I know they revealed a lot about characters, but almost nothing about the overall story, the present day, what happened with the team after the ending in AC3, who is/are the main antagonist(s), what's your main goal in the Single Player campaign and etc, which is very smart.
I think everyone here (and probably at Ubisoft) has understood your point. But like I said on the French side a zillion times before, they've just shown the same things over and over again. Most of the videos show the same actions, the same environments, which means they at least haven't spoiled all the content at all - well unless there really is nothing else to do or see apart from what we've seen. It certainly isn't the best way to promote a series that everyone knows well by now, but at least they haven't shown all the game yet, which is a welcome change compared with some other titles which spoil everything in one trailer. ;)
But this time they've been showing off a large amount of gameplay, probably to make up for AC3.
I think everyone here (and probably at Ubisoft) has understood your point. But like I said on the French side a zillion times before, they've just shown the same things over and over again. Most of the videos show the same actions, the same environments, which means they at least haven't spoiled all the content at all - well unless there really is nothing else to do or see apart from what we've seen. It certainly isn't the best way to promote a series that everyone knows well by now, but at least they haven't shown all the game yet, which is a welcome change compared with some other titles which spoil everything in one trailer. ;)
As for your point of thinking that everyone at Ubisoft already knows they are alienating the game's potential buyers, consequently, killing the game's potential sales, you don't take into account one very important thing: if they have understood that, how come they still keep releasing video after video of the game?!
They haven't done this with their other games, like Watch Dogs and Rayman Legends, which makes me think that maybe their "market assessment" about gamer's interest in the game isn't very good. Although this is something entirely different.
Also, I do agree with your point about the fact that they only showed the most basic of gameplay mechanics and the same things over and over - like I said in my post, as far as the overall story goes, they haven't said much, which is smart, but even gaming journalists and/or experts, along gamers, are already tired of so much promotion for the game, whether is new stuff, old stuff, story related or not.
And about trailers that spoil a lot, it wasn't till I was playing BioShock Infinite that I realized how bad the marketing of the game was, a lot of the key, and best, moments of the game weren't as powerful as they should have been because I already saw them around 1-5 times, so they ruined those moments for me and to a lot of other people who kept up with the game, which I believe is one of the reasons why the game didn't get a higher score from most critics and fans, myself included.
Both AC4-BF and Watch Dogs have successfully avoided that, which is great, but the over-exposure of AC4-BF has reached the point of annoying for a lot of people, of course, from your point of view - admin of a gaming site, the abundance of complaining about that has become something annoying as well.
To me, the best course of action is to appreciate the videos as they are for those who like to see them, like me, and/or to await the game's reviews and its release for those interested.
As for those not interested in the game or the franchise for that matter, it's not like Ubisoft will hear you if you start complaining about their marketing strategy and/or the game. So why complain at all?
Edit: Just saw your second comment and went to Google, the news just came out, guess you're right, still, hopefully, Ubisoft won't do that as much as with AC4-BF.
On a side note (and totally off-topic): I just read their justifications on VG24/7 (http://www.vg247.com/2013/10/15/watch-dogs-has-been-delayed-into-spring-2014/) and is it just me or is that because of 1) releasing two very similar games in the same month, AC4-BF and WD (which I always found it weird); and/or 2) after GTA V's astounding success in both sales and critic's reception, they realized how little diversified content the game had compared to GTA V and/or they definitely want to avoid the comparison between the two, which with GTA V still very fresh in people's memories, that would be almost impossible. To me is the second option.
I never said I understood Ubisoft; to me, the way they have promoted AC4 is terrible, because not only have they been releasing way too many videos, but we've had AC games every year for the past 3 or 4 years. Beats me why. Unless I'm right in my assumption just above. In the end, the best way to show you don't care is to not buy the game, and not watch the trailers. ;)